Several students were handcuffed and hauled away to police headquarters for questioning. Eight of them were later arrested. Criminal charges include aggravated and simple assault, rioting and resisting arrest.

The Delaware Valley High School, a school for students with behavioral problems, opened just this year in the former magnet school behind Thomas Ford Elementary.

Prior to this year, the district's troubled students had to be bused from Reading to D.V.H.S.'s location in North Coventry Twp., Chester Co. That presented its own problems, with reports of fights aboard the school buses, including one brawl that was caught on a cell phone camera.